View of "Pump Room", a work by the Hungarian artist Balázs Kicsiny at the Venice Biennale in 2005.

Works at 54th Venice Biennale, special edition for the 150 Anniversary of Italian Unification, 2011-2012[1]

The Venice Biennale (Italian: La Biennale di Venezia; in English also called the "Venice Biennial") is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years (in odd years) in Venice, Italy. In 2004, it officially changed its name to Biennale Foundation (www.labiennale.org). The Venice Biennale includes the following separate events (in chronological order of inauguration):

On April 19, 1893 the Venetian City Council passed a resolution to set up an biennial exhibition of Italian Art ("Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale") to celebrate the silver anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy.[3]

A year later, the council decreed "to adopt a 'by invitation' system; to reserve a section of the Exhibition for foreign artists too; to admit works by uninvited Italian artists, as selected by a jury."[4]

The first Biennale, "I Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Città di Venezia (1st International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice)" (although originally scheduled for April 22, 1894) was opened on April 30, 1895 by the Italian King and Queen, Umberto I and Margherita di Savoia. The first exhibition was seen by 224,000 visitors.

The event became more and more international in the first decades of the 20th century: from 1907 on, several countries started installing national pavilions at the exhibition, with the first being from Belgium. In 1910 the first internationally well-known artists were displayed- a room dedicated to Gustav Klimt, a one-man show for Renoir, a retrospective dedicated to Courbet. A work by Picasso was removed from the Spanish salon in the central Palazzo because it was feared that its novelty might shock the public. By 1914 seven pavilions had been established: Belgium (1907), Hungary (1909), Germany (1909), Great Britain (1909), France (1912), and Russia (1914).

1922 saw an exhibition of sculpture by African artists. Between the two World Wars, many important modern artists had their work exhibited there.

In 1928 the Istituto Storico d'Arte Contemporanea (Historical Institute of Contemporary Art) opened, which was the first nucleus of archival collections of the Biennale. In 1930 its name was changed into Historical Archive of Contemporary Art.

During World War II, the activities of the Biennale were interrupted: 1942 saw the last edition of the events. The Film Festival restarted in 1946, the Music and Theatre festivals were resumed in 1947, and the Art Exhibition in 1948.[5]

1949 saw the beginning of renewed attention to avant-garde movements in European, and later worldwide, movements in contemporary art. Abstract expressionism was introduced in the 1950s, and the Biennale is credited with importing Pop Art into the canon of art history by awarding the top prize to Robert Rauschenberg in 1964.[6] From 1948 to 1972, Italian architect Carlo Scarpa did a series of remarkable interventions in the Biennales exhibition spaces.

1964 the Art Exhibition introduced Europe to Pop Art. The American Robert Rauschenberg was the first American artist to win the Gran Premio, and the youngest to date.

The student protests of 1968 also marked a crisis for the Biennale. Student protests hindered the opening of the Biennale. A resulting period of institutional changes opened and ending with a new Statute in 1973.

1969, following the protests, the Grand Prizes were abandoned. These resumed in 1980 for the Mostra del Cinema and in 1986 for the Art Exhibition.

In 1972, for the first time a theme was adopted by the Biennale, called "Opera o comportamento" ("Work or Behaviour").

Starting from 1973 the Music Festival was no longer held annually. During the year in which the Mostra del Cinema was not held, there was a series of "Giornate del cinema italiano" (Days of Italian Cinema) promoted by sectorial bodies in campo Santa Margherita, in Venice.[7]

1974 saw the start of the four-year presidency of Carlo Ripa di Meana. The International Art Exhibition was not held (until it was resumed in 1976). Theatre and cinema events were held in October 1974 and 1975 under the title Libertà per il Cile (Freedom for Chile)- a major cultural protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

On 15 November 1977, the so-called 'Biennale of Dissent' (International and of the USSR) opened. Because of the ensuing controversies, president Ripa di Meana resigned.

In 1979 the new presidency of Giuseppe Galasso (1979-1982) began. The principle was laid down whereby each of the artistic sectors was to have a permanent director to organise its activity.

In 1980 the Architecture sector of the Biennale was set up. The director, Paolo Portoghesi, opened the Corderie dell'Arsenale to the public for the first time'. At the Mostra del Cinema, the awards were brought back into being (between 1969 and 1979, the editions were non-competitive). In 1980, Achille Bonito Oliva and Harald Szeemann introduced "Aperto", a section of the exhibition designed to explore emerging art. Italian art historian Giovanni Carandente directed the 1988 and 1990 editions. A three-year gap was left afterwards to make sure that the 1995 edition would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Biennale.

The 1993 edition was directed by Achille Bonito Oliva. In 1995, Jean Clair was appointed to be the Biennale's first non-Italian director of visual arts[8] while Germano Celant served as director in 1997.

In 1999 and 2001, Harald Szeemann directed two editions in a row (48th & 49th) bringing in a larger representation of artists from Asia and Eastern Europe and more young artist than usual and expanded the show into several newly restored spaces of the Arsenale.

In 1999 a new sector was created for live shows: DMT (Dance Music Theatre).

The 51st edition of the Biennale opened in June 2005, curated, for the first time by two women, Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez. De Corral organized "The Experience of Art" which included 41 artists, from past masters to younger figures. Rosa Martinez took over the Arsenale with "Always a Little Further." Drawing on "the myth of the romantic traveler" her exhibition involved 49 artists, ranging from the elegant to the profane. In 2007, Robert Storr became the first director from the United States to curate the Biennale (the 52nd), with a show entitled Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense. Swedish curator Daniel Birnbaum was artistic director of the 2009 edition, followed by the Swiss Bice Curiger in 2011.

The latest biennale, in 2013, was curated by the Italian Massimiliano Gioni. His title and theme, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico / The Encyclopedic Palace, was adopted from an architectural model by the self-taught Italian-American artist Marino Auriti. Auriti's work, The Encyclopedic Palace of the World was lent by the American Folk Art Museum and exhibited in the first room of the Arsenale for the duration of the biennale. For Gioni, Auriti's work, "meant to house all worldly knowledge, bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race, from the wheel to the satellite," provided an analogous figure for the "biennale model itself...based on the impossible desire to concentrate the infinite worlds of contemporary art in a single place: a task that now seems as dizzyingly absurd as Auriti's dream."[10]

Curator Okwui Enwezor is responsible for the 2015 edition.[11] He will be the first African-born curator of the biennial. As a catalyst for imagining different ways of imagining multiple desires and futures Enwezor commissioned special projects and programs throughout the Biennale in the Giardini. This includes a Creative Time Summit, e-flux journal's SUPERCOMMUNITY, Gulf Labor Coalition, The Invisible Borders Trans-African Project and Abounaddara.[12][13]

The Biennale has an attendance today of over 300,000 visitors.[14][15]

When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, one of its main goals was to establish a new market for contemporary art. Between 1942 and 1968 a sales office assisted artists in finding clients and selling their work,[16] a service for which it charged 10% commission. Sales remained an intrinsic part of the biennale until 1968, when a sales ban was enacted. An important practical reason why the focus on non-commodities has failed to decouple Venice from the market is that the biennale itself lacks the funds to produce, ship and install these large-scale works. Therefore the financial involvement of dealers is widely regarded indispensable.[6] Furthermore, every other year the Venice Biennale coincides with nearby Art Basel, the world's prime commercial fair for modern and contemporary art. Numerous galleries with artists on show in Venice usually bring work by the same artists to Basel.[17]

The formal Biennale is based at a park, the Giardini. The Giardini includes a large exhibition hall that houses a themed exhibition curated by the Biennale's director.

For the 2013 edition, the main exhibition's budget was about $2.3 million; in addition, more than $2 million were raised mostly from private individuals and foundations and philanthropists.[18]

Initiated in 1980, the Aperto began as a fringe event for younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by the permanent national pavilions. This is usually staged in the Arsenale and has become part of the formal biennale programme. In 1995 there was no Aperto so a number of participating countries hired venues to show exhibitions of emerging artists.

A special edition of the 54th Biennale was held at Padiglione Italia of Torino Esposizioni - Sala Nervi (December 2011 - February 2012) for the 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification. The event was directed by Vittorio Sgarbi.[19]

The Giardini houses 30 permanent national pavilions. Alongside the Central Pavilion, built in 1894 and later restructured and extended several times, the Giardini are occupied by a further 29 pavilions built at different periods by the various countries participating in the Biennale. The Giardini are the property of the individual countries and are managed by their ministries of culture.[20]

Countries not owning a pavilion in the Giardini are exhibited in other venues across Venice. The number of countries represented is still growing. In 2005, China was showing for the first time, followed by the African Pavilion and Mexico (2007), the United Arab Emirates (2009), and India (2011).[21]

The assignment of the permanent pavilions was largely dictated by the international politics of the 1930s and the Cold War. There is no single format to how each country manages their pavilion, established and emerging countries represented at the biennial maintain and fund their pavilions in different ways.[20] While pavilions are usually government-funded, private money plays an increasingly large role; in 2015, the pavilions of Iraq, Ukraine and Syria were completely privately funded.[22] The pavilion for Great Britain is always managed by the British Council while the United States assigns the responsibility to a public gallery chosen by the Department of State which, since 1985, has been the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.[23] The countries at the Arsenale that request a temporary exhibition space pay a hire fee per square meter.[20]

The original Australian Pavilion, designed by Philip Cox to be a temporary structure of fiber cement and steel,[25] was opened in 1988 at the western edge of the Giardini.[26] Italian-born Australian industrialist Franco Belgiorno-Nettis had previously lobbied so successfully that in 1988 Australia beat 16 other countries to the last site on which to build a permanent pavilion in the Giardini.[27] Cox and other generous donors gifted the pavilion to the Commonwealth Government.[28] The pavilion was not heritage protected because of its temporary status.[29] A new, permanent pavilion was designed by architectural practice Denton Corker Marshall and completed in 2015.[30] Built from concrete and steel, the two-story structure contains 240 square meters of exhibition space and the exterior is covered in black granite from Zimbabwe.[31] Meanwhile, the old pavilion was dismantled and shipped to Australia, where it will be installed at the Coldstream, Victoria estate of Melbourne restaurateur Rinaldo Di Stasio.[32]

Australia's participation at the Venice Biennale is managed by the Australia Council for the Arts. However, all of the A$6 milliom ($6.04 million) originally needed for the new building were to be raised from the private sector.[33] Eventually, the pavilion cost $7.5 million to build, $1 million of which was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts; the rest was donated by 82 private Australian donors, including actress Cate Blanchett[34] and producer Santo Cilauro.[35]

Designed by Joseph Hoffmann with the collaboration of Robert Kramreiter, 1934 (restored by Hans Hollein, 1984).[26] The clear symmetrical building, conceived as a white cube from the outset, was the first Venice pavilion to have been designed by a leading Classical Modern architect. The Hoffmann pavilion was not used following the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich in 1938, nor in the subsequent Biennale years of 1940 and 1942. Austrian artists with close ties to the Nazi regime were shown in the German Pavilion.[36]

The first Central Asian Pavilion was an initiative of Victor Miziano in 2005. In the following years the second pavilion was organized by Yulia Sorokina (Almaty) and the third by Beral Madra (Istanbul). Each of these exhibitions was different in format and approach. The first one – Art from Central Asia. A Contemporary Archive – aimed at placing Central Asia on the ‘map’ of international art. Along the works of invited artists, there were many video compilations of films, performance and happenings presented by Central Asian artists from the end of 1990s and beginning of 2000.

Designed by Alvar Aalto to be a temporary construction for the architecture biennale in 1956, the pavilion was later restored by Fredrik Fogh with the collaboration of Elsa Makiniemi, 1976–1982. Also used by Iceland.[26] In 2011, a big tree fell over the pavilion in Venice, effectively interrupting the Finnish exhibition in the 2011 biennale. The pavilion and the works exhibited there were damaged and the show had to be closed ahead of time. The pavilion was later restored.[43]

The commissioner for the German contribution to Biennial is the German Foreign Ministry. On the recommendation of an advisory committee of museum directors and art experts, the ministry appoints a curator (formerly called a commissioner) who is responsible for the selection of the artists and the organisation of the contribution. This appointment is usually for two years in succession. The Sparkassen-Kulturfonds (culture fund) of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband is the pavilion's main sponsor. The Goethe-Institut and, since 2013, the ifa Friends of the German Pavilion are also funders.[20]

From 1982 until 1990 the German Democratic Republic organized its own exhibitions in the former Pavilion of Decorative Art. Germany's pavilion was redesigned by Ernst Haiger and inaugurated in 1938 by the ruling Nazi government, a fact that has inspired artistic responses from some presenters.[38] It was originally designed by Daniele Donghi in 1909.[26]

Designed by Brenno Del Giudice, M. Papandre, 1934.[26] In 1934, after the Biennale had organised a second exhibition in Athens (1993) — Greece officially took part for the first time in the Venice exhibition. The exhibitions at the pavilion are commissioned by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

In 1984, as Finland had joined Norway and Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion, Iceland was given the opportunity to rent the Finnish pavilion until 2006.[26] The Icelandic Art Center commissions the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.[47]

In 2011, India was featured for the first time after 116 years, with the support of the culture ministry and the organizational participation of the Lalit Kala Akademi.[38] Biennale organizers have reportedly invited the country to participate in past years, but the government has declined until now — a decision attributed to a lack of communication between the culture ministry and the country's National Gallery of Modern Art.[38]

In 2011, Iraq returned to the Biennale for the first time after a 35-year absence. The title of the Iraq Pavilion was "Acqua Ferita" (translated as "Wounded Water"). Six important Iraqi artists from two generations interpreted the theme of water in their works, which made up the exhibition.

The cooperation between Finland, Norway and Sweden in Venice was initiated in 1962 after the completion of the Nordic Pavilion. Until 1984, the representation of each country was organized nationally.[56] From 1986 to 2009 the pavilion was commissioned as a whole, with the curatorial responsibility alternating between the collaborating countries. From 2011 the cooperation has been temporarily discontinued. In a trial period lasting from 2011 until 2015, the pavilion will be used for a national presentation by Sweden in 2011, Finland in 2013 and Norway in 2015.[57]

Romania has a National Pavilion in the Giardini since 1938, bought from the Italian state when the Venice Pavilion was extended. The interior was designed under the close surveillance of Nicolae Iorga.

Pavillon designed by Bruno Giacometti, 1952.[26] Between 1990 and 2009, Switzerland also used the San Stae church as exhibition venue. From 1932 until 1952 Switzerland had another pavilion, designed by Brenno Del Giudice on the island Sant'Elena.

As of 2012, Pro Helvetia has assumed responsibility for the Swiss contributions to the Venice Biennale.

In 2013, Turkey signed a 20-year lease for a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, securing a venue in the Arsenale until 2034. The state-funded Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts is be the co-ordinator of the Turkish pavilion.[62]

Despite the cost to the third world country, Tuvalu decided to develop its first national pavilion in 2013 to highlight the negative effects of global warming on the nation, which is forecast to be one of the first countries to disappear due to sea level rise caused by climate change.[64] After working closely with Taiwanese eco artist Vincent J.F. Huang at the 2012 UNFCCC COP18 session in Doha, Qatar and collaborating with the artist on several occasions, Tuvalu's government invited Huang to act as the representative artist for the pavilion.[64] All of the artworks at the 2013 Tuvalu Pavilion focused on climate change and included In the Name of Civilization, a giant oil rig turned agent of destruction, and Prisoner's Dilemma, a depiction of the Statue of Liberty kneeling in apology to ghostly portraits of terra-cotta penguins symbolic of ecological sacrifices made to further the development of human civilization.[65]

The United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was constructed in 1930[68] by the Grand Central Art Galleries, a nonprofit artists' cooperative established in 1922 by Walter Leighton Clark together with John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, and others.[69] As stated in the Galleries' 1934 catalog, the organization's goal was to "give a broader field to American art; to exhibit in a larger way to a more numerous audience, not in New York alone but throughout the country, thus displaying to the world the inherent value which our art undoubtedly possesses."[70]

Having worked tirelessly to promote American art at home the 1920s, in 1930 Walter Leighton Clark and the Grand Central Art Galleries spearheaded the creation of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.[71] Up until then there was no place at the Biennale dedicated to American art, and Clark felt that it was crucial to establishing the credentials of the nation's artists abroad.[72] The pavilion's architects were William Adams Delano, who also designed the Grand Central Art Galleries, and Chester Holmes Aldrich. The purchase of the land, design, and construction was paid for by the galleries and personally supervised by Clark. As he wrote in the 1934 catalog:

"Pursuing our purpose of putting American art prominently before the world, the directors a few years ago appropriated the sum of $25,000 for the erection of an exhibition building in Venice on the grounds of the International Biennial. Messrs. Delano and Aldrich generously donated the plans for this building which is constructed of Istrian marble and pink brick and more than holds its own with the twenty-five other buildings in the Park owned by the various European governments."[70]

The pavilion, owned and operated by the galleries, opened on May 4, 1930. Approximately 90 paintings and 12 sculptures were selected by Clark for the opening exhibition. Artists featured included Max Boehm, Hector Caser, Lillian Westcott Hale, Edward Hopper, Abraham Poole, Julius Rolshoven, Joseph Pollet, Eugene Savage, Elmer Shofeld, Ofelia Keelan, and African-American artist Henry Tanner. U.S. Ambassador John W. Garrett opened the show together with the Duke of Bergamo.[68]

Since 1986 the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has worked with the United States Information Agency, the US Department of State and the Fund for Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions in the organization of the visual arts exhibitions at the US Pavilion, while the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has organized the comparable shows at the Architecture Biennales. Every two years museum curators from across the U.S. detail their visions for the American pavilion in proposals that are reviewed by the NEA Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE), a group comprising curators, museum directors and artists who then submit their recommendations to the public-private Fund for United States Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions.[74] Traditionally the endowment's selection committee has chosen a proposal submitted by a museum or curator, but in 2004 it simply chose an artist who in turn has nominated a curator, later approved by the State Department.[75]

As well as the national pavilions there are countless "unofficial pavilions"[98] that spring up every year. 2009 there were pavilions such as the Gabon Pavilion and a Peckham pavilion. Upcoming artists in new media showed work in an Internet Pavilion in 2011.

The Venice Biennale has awarded prizes to the artists participating at the Exhibition since the first edition back in 1895. Grand Prizes were established in 1938 and ran until 1968 when they were abolished due to the protest movement. Prizes were taken up again in 1986. The selections are made by the Board of la Biennale di Venezia, following the proposal of the curator of the International Exhibition.

Also, the Biennale names the five members of its international jury, which is charged with awarding prizes to the national pavilions.[99]

On 26 July 1973, the Parliament approved the Organisation's new statute for the Biennale. A "democratic" Board was set up. It included 19 members made up of representatives from the Government, the most important local organisations, major trade unions, and a representative of the staff. The Board was to elect the President and nominate the Sectorial Directors - one each for Visual arts, Cinema, Music, and Theatre.

In 1998 the Biennale was transformed into a legal personality in private law and renamed "Società di Cultura La Biennale di Venezia". The company structure - Board of directors, Scientific committee, Board of auditors and assembly of private backers - has a duration of four years. The areas of activity became six (Architecture, Visual arts, Cinema, Theatre, Music, Dance), in collaboration with the ASAC (the Historical Archives). The President is nominated by the Minister for Cultural Affairs. The Board of directors consists of the President, the Mayor of Venice, and three members nominated respectively by the Regione Veneto, the Consiglio Provinciale di Venezia and private backers. Dance, was added to the others.